Nice buns
Brioche-like but not as sweet: a recipe by Brontë Aurell that shines like its glaze. "Toast and slather on enough butter so you can see tooth marks," says Brontë. My Cornish gran would have approved.
Just before Christmas I published an interview with Brontë Aurell, the inspirational co-founder of café and online store ScandiKitchen. Brontë has written several books, all of which I love for their beautifully photographed, rigorously tested recipes that gather the reader into a Scandinavian culture I love to feel a part of, even if only temporarily. I suspect my Scandi yearning stems from the fact that I’m named after my mum’s best friend Kari, a Norwegian, who I heard so much about when I was little. How I’d love to meet Kari now, as a grown-up, but my mum died so young that we all lost touch – and now there’s no one to ask. I don’t even know Kari’s surname. So I’m making Scandi buns instead…
If you missed the interview with Brontë, which includes a recipe for an outstanding lemon cake, here it is:
That almondy, citrussy cake has become a firm fixture in my baking repertoire as it’s different from the ubiquitous lemon drizzle, with a beautifully tender crumb. And it keeps well given half a chance (unlikely, frankly, unless you’re a person of supreme restraint, which I am not).
I promised another recipe from Bronte’s latest book, The Scandinavian Year, and here it is, tested, as usual, in my own kitchen at home with a few additional notes from me. The recipe is for brioche-like rolls: the dough is spiced with cardamom and enriched with butter and a little sugar but isn’t quite as sweet as regular brioche. The buns (known as hveder) are traditionally baked after Easter but, as Brontë says, they’re too good to enjoy only once a year. Bake them now, then bake them again after that glorious long weekend in April.
Here are pictures from my testing…
